Only love can hurt like this
by Goodiguess
Summary: Deidara is an aspiring artist attending university. One day he meets a puppeteer named Sasori at a soirée. Sasori introduces him to a dark and dangerous world and not long after Deidara wished he had never met the red-head.
1. Do I wanna know?

**1. ****Do I wanna know?**

He was surrounded by a crowd of people who starred at his canvas. It was the end of summer term and the students of the art department showed their best work at a well- attended soirée. Deidara had been nervous. He was very protective of his art and didn't like to showcase it at all. Mostly, because he wasn't sure if anyone would understand his vision. He didn't miss out on the questioning looks of the guests, when they looked at his work.

_As if they would understand anything about art._

He sighed. Finally the crowd moved on to the next painting. A catastrophe in neon colours. Only one person remained looking at Deidara's artwork. A small guy with red hair. Deidara stepped next to him. "Confused?"

"No not at all. Amazed you could say," the red-head answered. He shifted his gaze and looked into Deidara's face. The guy was older that he had expected from his statue. His eyes were of an intriguing reddish brown. Deidara couldn't help but smile a bit. "Thanks…"

"How did you get this pattern?" the red-head wanted to know. "As if I would tell you, un." A magician didn't reveal his tricks. The red-head raised one of his eyebrows. "No worries, I'm not intending to copy it. I'm amazed because it is is exactly the opposite of what my vision would be…don't get me wrong that's the main reason I think it's fabulous."

_He is a bit of an odd fellow_.

"Alright…" Deidara folded his arms in front of his torso. "By the way, my name is Sasori. I'm the master puppeteer over at the department of theatre.

_Wait… he is a lecturer?_

"Deidara." They shook hands. "Prof. Miyagi invited me. I used to study art, before I switched to theatre and puppets," the other explained. "He told me he had one outstanding student this year. Guess he meant you. I had a look around. All the other paintings…I have the feeling I have seen them over in over in different variations. Yours is bold and full of passion."

"I try to capture the beauty of the moment. It's kinda hard to do with a painting mind you." He put his hands into the pockets of his black skinny jeans. He wasn't used to praises which made him somehow feel uneasy and embarrassed.

Sasori grinned. Was the blonde really blushing? He had noticed the artist way before his art. Those big blue shy eyes fascinated him. He had to come up with a way to make the guy talk to him without being too obvious. How to involve an artist better as to praise his art? He didn't even have to lie. He liked the art of the young man whose name turned out to be Deidara. Sasori checked him out from close-by now. The artist might be just what he and his friends were looking for.

"You should join me and my friends at the "Propane Nightmares" when this is over. It's a cool and alternative crowd there. I assume you would fit in just so… or you could of course join the after soirée snore fest at the local Irish pub, whatever suits you more." He waved the young man goodbye. By the look on his face he could already tell that he would see Deidara later. He wasn't called the master puppeteer for nothing.

Perplexed he watched Sasori walk away. Of course he had heard of the club the puppeteer had talked about. His friends wouldn't want to go there when he had suggested it a while back. The patrons were rumoured to be weird and dangerous. But it couldn't surely be that bad when a lecturer went there as well. Deidara wouldn't be surprised if the club was in fact just a hangout for folks that were a bit different than the boring rest.

_Do I wanna know?_

He looked around. He wasn't in the mood for another evening with his peers. He could almost hear the self-praise that Naruto would start. Or Hinata's complaining that no one ever noticed her. Or just the stupidity of Tobi. He wasn't in the mood for that at all.

For this reason he didn't join the others when they went to the Lucky Charme when the soirée had ended. "Sorry guys, I'm beat."

Deidara wandered around for a while. He couldn't make his mind up as if to join that redheaded guy. Maybe he was better advised to go to bed. But before he knew where he was his steps had carries him to the "Propane Nightmare".

_As I'm already here, I might as well check it out._


	2. Disturbia

**1. ****Hope the wait wasn't to long. Some of the content of this chapter might be a bit confusing at the moment, but everything will be explained sooner or later I promised. Finally I would be happy if you drop me a line or tow to let me know what you think. Enjoy!**

**Disturbia**

As Deidara was already dresses to impress he didn't have a problem getting into the club at all. At first glance the inside looked just like any other club. An overcrowded bar with stressed out barkeepers, people on the dance floor grinding against each other in the rhythm of the music and groups sitting in comfy booths talking to each other. It took a while for Deidara's eyes to adjust to the darkness. The big room was only scarcely lit, most light came from UV tubes. The DJ played a tune by Gossip and the bass made the floor shake.

Deidara's gaze scanned the room for his new red-headed acquaintance. Finally he spotted him sitting in one of the booths' in the rear of the club. He shoved himself through the crowd. "Deidara, you made it," Sasori said with a big smile on his face when he saw him. "Let me introduce you to this lot, "the puppeteer offered. He was surrounded by four friends. "Sure," Deidara replied curiously.

"The beautiful lady to my right is Konan. She is a tattoo artist." Deidara looked at the girl. She was maybe a couple of years older than him and had her hair dyed in a royal blue. Her arms were covered in tattoos. She gave him a seductive smile. "This gentleman to my left is called Pein. You wouldn't think so, but he is the boss of an import/export company." Sasori was right. It was hard to believe that the heavily pierced orange haired man was the president of a company. But maybe he could do as he pleased in his position and didn't need to care for his appearances. "This guy is Itachi, he is the heir to the Uchiha family, so he's all about play, no work for that one. Finally the gentlemen with the smug smile, over there is Hidan. He owns this club." Deidara nodded at them. Itachi's hair was pitch black, his eyes dark and mysterious. Hidan had s lasting smile on his lips. Around his neck he wore a necklace that rested on his naked well-toned chest. They made an interesting group somehow. Who would have thought that people with widespread backgrounds like theirs would be friends? The girl named Konan stood up and walked over to him. "How about we get you a drink, sweetie?" Without a warning she grabbed his hands and directed him to the bar. It all felt a bit surreal to the young artist, but why not play along for a while?

The group looked at Konan and Deidara walking to the bar. "Look at that ass…damn. Well, done Sasori. Who would have known going to that boring soirée, would actually turn out useful." Hidan took a sip of his whiskey. Sasori grinned. "I thought you would be pleased, boss. " Then again it wasn't particularly hard to please the grey haired man. "You think he will do for Madara as well?" Hidan cocked his head. "If he doesn't do I don't know who will." Sasori nodded. "That's what I thought. Only problem is: I think it would get noticed if he were to disappear from one day to the other." Even though the blonde decided to skip the pub this evening, it had been clear to him, that he was probably good friends with his fellow students.

"Madara won't be around for another couple of weeks. That should suffice to alienate the kid from his friends."Pein spoke quietly and slow. "Let's introduce him to our world. The rest will happen automatically. Kids nowadays are just so easy to manipulate. Just look at our boy Itachi here, he used to be such a good boy." Itachi smiled wryly. "Well, to be good means to be boring."

Sasori frowned. Itachi was the newest member to their group. The main reason they had accepted him, where his financial resources, but Sasori couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right about him. The rest of them had good reasons to work for Hidan, but Itachi neither needed the money nor was born into this milieu. Was it just the kick that kept him going?

A couple of drinks later, Deidara found himself on the dance floor with Konan. All around them were other people losing themselves in the music. They danced skin-tight until Pein came to snatch her away. He gave Deidara a pinching gaze before he closed in at the blue-haired to kiss her fiercely. Dumbstruck Deidara stood there for a few seconds. Had he known those two were an item he would have never danced with Konan like that. He walked back to the booth were Sasori and the rest of them were seated. "Someone could have told me that those two had a thing going on,un" he complaint to them. "Why? And robbing of us the fun to see Pein growing more and more jealous? Don't worry that's their thing. Konan picks someone she hits on until Pein has had enough and claims her back," Sasori explained with a slight chuckle. It had been obvious that the blonde had enjoyed the attention, oblivious to them maybe unwanted attention he had from Hidan who hadn't layed his eyes of him since the artist had walked up to their booth.

Deidara sat down, grabbed one of the Tequila shots that were lined up on their table and downed it. He hadn't been as wasted as this in a long while. Hidan stood up and relocated himself next to the blonde. Deidara could feel how he put his arm around his shoulder. "Don't sulk, Dei," he whispered. "She doesn't know what she is missing out on." Hidan smelled of perfume and alcohol. Deidara sighed. "It would be alright if this wouldn't keep happening to me, un," he confessed. "Really? That's hard to imagine…" Hidan scratched the back of his head and licked his lips. It was obvious for Sasori and Itachi that their boss really wanted to get into his pants.

"Well, I think I should head home for today,"Deidara decided. "You're sure?" Itachi asked. Deidara nodded. "Yes, I'm kinda wasted,un. " Hidan frowned a bit. "That's too bad…but you should join us on the weekend. Itachi is having a pool party at his parents' beach house." Itachi nodded. "Right, you should join us." Deidara agreed. He grabbed a pen and noted his phone number down. "Let me know when and where exactly," he said, before he left the club, slightly staggering.


	3. Another cup of coffee

**Hello everyone...sorry about the late update. Life happened...work and other things and I didn't find the time to write. But let me tell you that I'm not about to abandon this story even if updates could last a while longer.**

**Another cup of coffee**

Deidara lumbered into the kitchen just to collapse onto a chair. He rested his head on the table top, sighing exhausted.

"Hard night?" an amused voice sniggered. The voice belonged to his flat mate Kakashi. Kakashi was a master's student in literature. Most of the time Deidara would find him reading books. Impressive enough, Kakashi was able to multi task. He could read and still have a meaningful conversation. So Deidara wasn't surprised that when he looked up he found Kakashi sitting on the other side of the table reading a newspaper.

"You could say that,un."

He put his head down again, eyes closed. The sunlight made his bad headache even worse. "Never though soirees were so much fun." As Kakashi turned the page, Deidara flinched. "Or did you have one pint to many at the Irish pub?" Deidara took a deep breath. "Neither,un. Went to a club…Propane Nightmares."

Kakashi put the newspaper down. "Good for you,Dei. Your art peers are way to boring…So what brought you there?" Kakahsi stood up, poured a glass of water and fetched some pain killers. He placed both in front of the blonde. "I met this guy at the soiree,un. Sasori…" he explained. "He invited me."

Kakashi sat down again. "A guy,he? Finally decided to explore into that direction?" Deidara was bisexual, but had actually never kissed another guy. So far all his experiences had been with girls. "It wasn't like that, Kakashi. I met his friends, danced with a girl, got drunk…obviously…they invited me to a party this weekend." He swallowed the pain killers with a big sip of water.

"You're going?" –"I guess so. Got nothing else planned and it might be fun,un." On the other hand, when he considered how shitty he felt just now…

_Maybe I should just drink less._

Kakashi picked up the newspaper. "You should eat something. That should help with your hangover." Deidara sighed. "I know…I know… I will as soon as the world stops spinning." He could hear Kakashi snigger once more. His flat mate was obviously happy to see him suffer.

"You're an ass,un."

It took Deidata almost an hour, before he felt well enough to get up or eat. He fried up some eggs and bacon and placed them onto two slices of toasted bread. Kakashi had left a while ago. His flat mate had a black belt in karate and gave lessons to finance his studies.

Without Kakashi the flat got really quiet. It was more than alright with Deidara, who planned to have a lazy day anyways. He relocated to the living room and spend his day watching TV. His thoughts wandered back to the night before more than once though. Kakashi was right. His so-called friend were all kind of kill joys. But could he trust that bunch of people he had just met?

On the next day Deidara met up with Sakura and Tobi in the mall. He had promised them a while ago to go there with both of them. It suited him just fine as he planned on buying something new to wear for the party at Itachu Uchiha's house. He didn't want to stick out as a brat right from the start.

"So…where did you disappear to the other night, senpai?" Tobi enquired. He always called him senpai. In the beginning it had annoyed Deidara that much that he was only one wrong word away from punching the black-haired. By now he accepted that weird nickname. "Not important," he answered. He knew if he told Tobi and Sakura where he went, they would lecture him for the rest of the day. "You met a girl, right?" Sakura wouldn't drop the matter that easily. "Okay, you got me, un." Sakura gave him a scolding look, while Tobi gave him a thumbs up. "Nicely done, senpai."

Deidara shrugged his shoulders. "How was the pub anyways?" Sakura sighed. "Same old. I wished one of these days a good looking guy would enter O'Reilly's…no offence." Tobi grimaced as if he had bitten into a lemon. "There are a lot of nice guys. The problem is, that you only have eyes for that Sasuke guy." Deidara couldn't keep himself from sniggering. "Tobi is right, y'know."

They entered a clothing store. While Tobi seemed to be glued to Sakura, Deidara could venture out by himself. He bought a new pair of black skinny jeans, a T-shirt of his favourite band and a black vest. When he had paid, he started to search for his friends. He found Tobi waiting for Sakura in front of the fitting rooms. "Tobi, if you like Sakura you should let her know,un," he pointed out. "I don't want to," Tobi moaned." She will brush me off….stupid Sasuke guy." Deidara sighed. "Well, then don't let her know, but stop swooning whenever she is around."

Sasori sat behind his desk in his office at the university tending to some paper work that fell short during term time. His thoughts went back to the night two days ago. He couldn't believe that he had finally found a brat that Madara might like. All his work would pay off. Sasori put his pencil aside. He reached for a key in his pocket and opened the uppermost drawer on his desk. Below some random clutter, that he put there on purpose, he found the item he was looking for. He grabbed the mobile phone. He switched it on, waited for it to power up and then chose speed dial 1. A husky voice ansered.

"Hello?" –"It's Sasori, Sir. I think it will go down soon."

"Excellent. Stay alert and even more important stay in role. No matter what happens."

Sasori nodded and then remembered that the other one couldn't see that. "Sure thing, Captain."


End file.
